There was standing room only for the Tiger Point Country Club golf members that filled the main dining room of the clubhouse as club manager Steve Goldstein opened the meeting. They were there to hear the plans for a major renovation of the East Course and to learn how the course closure would impact their membership status.

Many of those present are cart owners who pay monthly trail fees rather than cart fees, and they were anxious to know how the closure of the course would affect their pocketbooks when playing at other Meadowbrook properties.

In Tiger Point's January newsletter, Goldstein stated, "As everyone knows; we will be closing the East course for renovations beginning in May and hopefully reopen in October." He also announced, "The decision has been made that there will not be any restrictions on the number of rounds members can play at any ,of our Emerald Coast properties during the closure of the East Course."

Those properties include Scenic Hills, Hidden Creek and Shalimar Pointe, purchased from KLS Fairways in late 1999 by the Meadowbrook Golf Group as part of a package deal that included Tiger Point.

According to Vince Whibb, Chairman of Tiger Point's Advisory Board, the group recommended that cart owners be extended the use of golf carts at no charge when playing other Meadowbrook courses in the area. "We can only recommend; we have no power," he said.

Goldstein welcomed those present and introduced Ron Lavoie, director of operations for Meadowbrook Golf Group. After announcing new leadership in place within the company, Lavoie said that the new CEO, Ron Jackson, had recently visited Tiger Point and gave the go ahead for a $1.3 million renovation of the East Course. That renovation will involve work on the greens complexes and the irrigation system as it relates to the greens complexes and the affluent water situation.

Another corporate change Lavoie believes that will positively impact the golf course quality at Tiger Point is that Meadowbrook's company, International Golf Maintenance (IGM), win be intimately involved in the supervision of the renovation and continued maintenance of the courses.

"What that means for us is that we have a lot of experts from the regional managers to the national vice presidents of our company that are all agronomists. They understand it and they will be talking to the agronomists at each of our properties instead of agronomists trying to talk to GMs and GMs don't really know the agronomic side of it. So we have a lot more experts looking at all our properties."

Lavoie quelled the rumor that Tiger Point Country Club is for sale.

"We have had numerous people call us about buying Tiger Point and have not listened to any of them. It was never an option to put this club up for sale."

He stated that Meadowbrook's vision for Tiger Point is that it becomes a high-end property.

"It has everything to move to that level. It has national prominence; Jerry Pate certainly saw to that," Lavoie said. "It was a destination place. People flew in here to play it and that's exactly where we want it again." He explained that higher green fees for tourists playing Tiger Point would elevate the status of membership at the property and help keep the membership fees down.

"One of our biggest goals is for 'in season' ,rates to be somewhere around $100 for tourists to come here and play, which helps fund the golf course for you and if we get enough of them, keeps your fees down," he told the members.

Greg Plotner, who oversees 42 golf courses in Florida for IGM, then explained that the East Course renovations would mostly involve green construction and irrigation. Jerry Pate will do the design while his brother, Scott, with Seaside Golf Development, will do the actual construction work. He then introduced Jerry Pate who received a rousing round of applause from the golfers.

Pate immediately took part of the blame for what he called "the demise" of Tiger Point. "I probably should have never sold it!"

He assured his listeners of his confidence that he and his brother can bring Tiger Point up to where it was, if not better than that.

Lavoie said the cart owner issue has not been resolved.

"I didn't intend to do anything but after listening to the team here and your concerns, I am going to do something," he said. "We just have to work it out internally."

When asked if dues might be reduced since only half of the facility would be available for use, he responded negatively. In response to the golfers' questions, he also stated that the capital improvements did not include any renovation to the West Course, the East Course bathroom facilities or refurbishing the kitchen and clubhouse.